The Queue: Healer fight

Conventional wisdom says healers are the nice guys of World of Warcraft.

Conventional wisdom is wrong. Healers are dark, vengeful creatures who have the power to control life and death. Never anger your healer, and if you get in the middle of a healer fight you should get out of the way.

Mark asked:

I love healing, but have grown tired of pally healing so I maxed out a priest! (First clothy I’ve ever leveled) I’m enjoying the class, however I want to heal as Disc since Holy feels like pally heals. I’m reading a lot of places that Disc isn’t too great though, is Disc viable? If so, any helpful tips, keep feeling when things go south in a dungeon I don’t have any get out of jail free cards in my toolset since it’s all based on atonement.

Liz: Over Mitch’s extreme objections, I recruited Rachelle to answer this question. And… then basically the entire team dogpiled on.

Rachelle: Disc is definitely viable. The problem is that you don’t have too many emergency heals and you have to know damage patterns. In dungeons you’ll mostly rely on using Shadow Mend as your main heal until you start to overgear it, and then you can get by on just Atonement and DPSing. One of the level 100 talents, Grace, will buff your Shadow Mend by quite a bit. Sometimes you may just be forced to Shadow Mend spam if things are going wrong, followed by a quick Penance for a burst of Atonement healing or Light’s Wrath if you have time to cast it. If things are really bad, there’s probably not much you can and it’s probably not your fault.

Rades: If your tank is dying, just Life Grip them out of danger! If there are too many mobs, go and Psychic Scream them away. Your tank will thank you.

Liz: Do not listen to Rades.

Rachelle: Disc Priests get a bad rap because a lot of people don’t know how to play them, “high skill cap” like Matticus said. But they’re definitely viable in mythic +s and raids.

Liz: Do listen to Rachelle. She actually knows how to play a Priest.

Mitch: I’m not associating myself with the above conversation. NEXT QUESTION!

Deyns asked:

QftQ: Is the Cheerleader Kerrigan skin only for those that do the bracket challenge, or will she also be purchasable? I haven’t been able to find accurate information on this, and Blizzard hasn’t answered my tweets. Thanks!

Liz: Though Blizzard hasn’t actually said so, my guess is that you will find Cheerleader Kerrigan in the store. Azmodunk, last year’s Legendary skin, went on sale after Heroes of the Dorm. As to when it will be on sale or what it will cost… well, that’s up to Blizzard.

Mitch: Ditto what Liz said. I would, however, caution against just assuming she’ll be there forever. If it’s something you’re interested in, definitely keep an eye out for her appearance in the shop, because you may only got one shot — do not miss your chance, this opportunity (may) come once in a lifetime.

Liz: Buy fast! You’ll notice Azmodunk isn’t available these days. I wonder if we’ll see that skin back in the store sometime.

Mitch: Maybe for the HotS anniversary (so, June). They sometimes bring back rare skins for that. I say sometimes as though they’ve had a lot of anniversaries.

Shadewind asked:

Q4tQ: You have been tasked with condensing your favourite class down to 2 specs. Which spec gets the axe? And which theme, talents, spells and abilities would the remaining 2 specs cannibalise to make their play-styles stronger?

Liz: I typically play a Monk and, you know, despite the fact that I play as Windwalker at least half of the time, that’s the spec I’d cut…. because all of the punching and kicking Windwalker aesthetic could fit neatly into Brewmaster or Mistweaver. You could let Brewmasters have more tanky talent choices and more DPS-y talent choices, and give Mistweavers a fistweaving option again. I’ve already sold myself on the idea. Let’s get it done, Blizzard!